My parents recently moved into this house and have a massive lawn of a few acres with pretty much nothing but grass interspersed by weeds. I want to replace at least an acre of this ecological dead zone.
I was thinking a wildflower prairie with a trail going through it. What would you put here?
USDA zone 4.
by aufry
35 Comments
A pond
Anything but all that lawn lol. Why anyone wanted to spend every second of their weekend and spare dollar mowing that is beyond me…
All native plants! It’s truly a blank canvas. Anything shady would have to be in the edges or wait for shrubs and trees to grow in. Your idea sounds good. With all that space, I’d find a bulk sunny native seed mix from a solid supplier and go from there
A native meadow would be nice.
Thrown in a bunch of native trees, like some oaks and whatnot, and you’ve got a native habitat.
Fruit trees 🍎
If you’re asking what I would actually do, I’d probably plant a few trees every year as time and budget allowed until it was a nice semi-forested spot.
If you’re asking what I’d like to be there- a pond, a wildflower medow, a trail, a few trees interspersed.
Go ask /r/nativeplantgardening. You’re also going to want to be location-specific; USDA zone doesn’t mean anything for native ecology.
What used to be around your area? Prairie? Woodland? Wetlands? You can work on landscape restoration.
Native plants
I’d reference what the land once was before being developed and use a large patch (maybe 1/10 of that area or more) to convert it back to its original habitat type. The rest? More natives of your choose and lots of edible plants (perhaps large garden). There’s also plenty of room for a greenhouse it looks like (more opportunity to grow edible plants, perhaps tropical ones or ornamental plants if that is more your speed). Fruit trees wouldn’t be a bad idea. Perhaps apples, plums, and native fruit trees that provide edible value for yourself and the wildlife.
Get rid of the swingset and turn that into a native wildflower area, begin planning your tree planting routine – you will want to get them in the ground in the fall when they’re dormant and its nice and wet, or early, early, spring when they’re dormant and its nice and wet. Oldsters I know always do some tree planting on Thanksgiving weekend if they can, seems to work well for them.
If you can do a native wildflower prairie with some trails cut in that would be amazing but it will be a ton of work and maybe a bit of an investment. Removing this much lawn will be difficult unless you’ve got some heavy duty equipment. Prairie moon has a site prep guide, it’s not super detailed but it’s a start https://www.prairiemoon.com/PDF/Seed-Mix-Site-Prep.pdf. I
Trees are a great option too, look into keystone trees for your area. If you can swing converting the whole area to a prairie, you could do a more manageable area while adding trees to the other.
A garden for yourself isn’t a bad idea either. Farms use land that could otherwise be natural habitat, not to mention the chemical use. It’s a drop in the bucket but reducing your dependence on large scale agriculture doesn’t hurt.
People gave my suggestions. My partner would most certaintly suggest building a sauna.
Maybe a gazebo too.
Garden boxes or hugl mounds with large arches for plants to climb and grow on.
Love your idea of a wildflower prairie with a path. Definitely a few native trees that will support the most wildlife!
What a cool blank canvas, how fun
Fence, add barn and keep a couple pasture pets. Then I’d take some land away from the donkeys, ponies, sheep and so on and build gardens one at a time.
See if the local forestry service offers free native trees and plant a Miyawaki Forest.
After years of study plant the food garden of my dreams. Lots of cattle panel arches, wire covered critter resistant hoop house, fancy tool shed, green house, fruit trees, integrated chicken and compost system…
Close to the house the native plant grassland so I can watch the birds and there’s the terrific forest backdrop at a distance. Wildlife pond, copse[s] of shrubs and trees.
I’d buy bulk fruit trees from Arbor Day foundation (or the instant orchard bundles from raintree nursery) and pick fun fruiting ground cover and herbaceous perennials and shrubs that can survive shade once established. (Edited for the correct online nurseries)
Nothing. I took five acres and left it alone for nine years with minimal mowing. I now have 20+ foot trees (maple, oak, cottonwood, hawthorn, cherry, etc. ) a butt load of roses and blackberries, all with no seeding or plantings. I just mow and maintain a few walking trails around the perimeter and call it quits.
Parking lot would probably be the most obvious choice. Surprised no one has recommended that yet
A parking lot
I would play hella bocce ball there and drink a tonne of beer
Many rows of different wild flowers.
A Maze?
A path around the parameter?
Wildflower meadow would be your best bet. Super low maintenance and provides habitat and food for lots of native animals. Just make sure you buy a seed mix that has plants that are actually native to your area. Don’t buy some random seed mix from a big box store as they have plants that aren’t even native to North America in them.
Trees! Maybe a food forest with a scenic path and a small manmade pond.
I would do a massive kidney shaped area and reforest it. I would then make a massive meadow. I’d also do a veggie garden with fruit trees. Not sure what state you are in, but Illinois has a state tree nursery. You can get bunches of shrubs and trees for $25-35.
Wherever you are, Xerces has a list for you
[https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/pollinator-friendly-plant-lists](https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/pollinator-friendly-plant-lists)
Greenhouse!
Disc golf course. Oh, wrong sub.
A par 3.
Five big dogs who could do zoomies.
Veggie garden
A native meadow with a winding trail WOULD be gorgeous, if I may be pretentious here a bit…. perhaps start with “what would be here If I werent” or “what does this land want to be”. A “forest edge” area would make that transition from the tree-line to any meadow area a lot more naturalistic, could even plant a segueway of sorts with native shrubs and small trees, then transition into your meadow area. It depends a lot on what state you’re in and your regional weather. You can force a meadow anywhere, they do thrive on disturbance so you’ll still need to mow it atleast annually. If you were to just do nothing it would likely start as a meadow of sorts… then slowly convert into forest based solely on what I can see in the picture alone.
If you do opt for a meadow, I highly recommend doing a little extra work upfront. Source some native wildflower, grass, & sedges seed mixture, rent an aerator for the day from your local big box store (maybe $80 for the day), hand broadcast your seed and reintroduce some native color and structure. Mow it everytime it gets to about 10-12″ the first year (yes you unfortunately sacrifice many of those first year blooms but it will be worth it), then the second year cut back on how often you mow and see how it does.
I guess that’s not really a definitive answer but, you look like you’ve got some prime real estate there for combo beautification rewilding with a little sweat equity and strategic purchases upfront, in 2-3yrs it could be a masterpiece with a little planning!
Sheep, goats, horses, etc.
A par 3
A backyard orchard
Plants
garden
You could have a lot of blackberry bushes, hazelnut bushes and then fruit trees where they wouldn’t block the light. The blackberries would start producing quickly, as would the hazelnuts. Then the fruit trees. Put some strawberry beds on the side that gets the least shade from them all and have berries that year. Oh my! Sounds wonderful.